CHILD RIGHTS AND MEDIA DEMOCRATIZATION: AN AGENDA FOR REALIZATION OF THE MDGs IN NIGERIA
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The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight goals to be achieved by 2015. The Goals have become an international framework for development and a platform for developing countries and their partners to work together. UNICEF has called attention to the fact that meeting the MDGs requires paying serious attention to the rights of children. Its
position is that "six of the eight millennium development goals can best be met as the rights of children to health, education, protection and equality" and that "they will only be sustained as the rights of every child are
realized". However, the current situation of children is far from the ideal, especially with the developing nations, Nigeria inclusive. There is therefore the need for urgent actions to protect the rights of the child in order to meet the Millennium Goals. A critical step in this direction is the engagement of the media. The media play a key role in encouraging people's participation in the realization of the goals, especially where it has to do with holding the government accountable jar the Millennium promise. This paper argues that the current Nigerian media system is not
in a position to satisfy the media needs for realizing the MDGs. It therefore calls for a more vibrant media structure and practice that will ensure information democratization in order to popularize child rights and consequently aid the fulfillment of MDGs.
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ZA4050 Electronic information resources